The Fram Formation is an

Upper Devonian The Devonian ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic era, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the Silurian, million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Carboniferous, Mya. It is named after Devon, England, wher ...

(

Frasnian The Frasnian is one of two faunal stages in the Late Devonian Period. It lasted from million years ago to million years ago. It was preceded by the Givetian Stage and followed by the Famennian Stage. Major reef-building was under way during th ...

) sequence of rock strata on

Ellesmere Island Ellesmere Island ( iu, script=Latn, Umingmak Nuna, lit=land of muskoxen; french: île d'Ellesmere) is Canada's northernmost and List of Canadian islands by area, third largest island, and the List of islands by area, tenth largest in the world. ...

that came into prominence in 2006 with the discovery in its rocks of examples of the

transitional fossil A transitional fossil is any fossilized remains of a life form that exhibits traits common to both an ancestral group and its derived descendant group. This is especially important where the descendant group is sharply differentiated by gross a ...

, ''

Tiktaalik ''Tiktaalik'' (; Inuktitut ) is a monospecific genus of extinct sarcopterygian (lobe-finned fish) from the Late Devonian Period, about 375 Mya (million years ago), having many features akin to those of tetrapods (four-legged animals). It may hav ...

'', a

sarcopterygian Sarcopterygii (; ) — sometimes considered synonymous with Crossopterygii () — is a taxon (traditionally a class or subclass) of the bony fishes known as the lobe-finned fishes. The group Tetrapoda, a mostly terrestrial superclass includi ...

or lobe-finned fish showing many

tetrapod Tetrapods (; ) are four-limbed vertebrate animals constituting the superclass Tetrapoda (). It includes extant and extinct amphibians, sauropsids ( reptiles, including dinosaurs and therefore birds) and synapsids (pelycosaurs, extinct theraps ...

characteristics. Fossils of ''

Laccognathus embryi ''Laccognathus embryi'' is an extinct species of porolepiform lobe-finned fish recovered from Ellesmere Island, Canada. It existed during the Frasnian age of the Late Devonian epoch (around 385.3 to 374.5 mya). Discovery Specimens from at l ...

'', a

porolepiform Porolepiformes is an Order (biology), order of prehistoric lobe-finned fish which lived during the Devonian geological period, period (about 416 to 359 million years ago). The group contains two family (biology), families: Holoptychiidae and Poro ...

lobe-finned fish, and ''

Qikiqtania ''Qikiqtania'' (pronounced "kick-kiq-tani-ahh") is an extinct genus of elpistostegalian tetrapodomorph from the Late Devonian (early Frasnian stage) Fram Formation of Nunavut, Canada. The genus contains a single species, ''Q. wakei'', known from ...

'', a close relative of ''Tiktaalik'', were also found in the formation. The Fram Formation is a Middle to Upper Devonian clastic wedge forming an extensive continental facies consisting of sediments derived from deposits laid down in

braided stream A braided river, or braided channel, consists of a network of river channels separated by small, often temporary, islands called braid bars or, in English usage, ''aits'' or ''eyots''. Braided streams tend to occur in rivers with high sediment lo ...

systems that formed some 375 million years ago,

Fossil pollen Paleobotany, which is also spelled as palaeobotany, is the branch of botany dealing with the recovery and identification of plant remains from geological contexts, and their use for the biological reconstruction of past environments (paleogeogr ...

suggest that these rocks lie within the early and middle

Stage of the Devonian. at a time when the

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

craton A craton (, , or ; from grc-gre, κράτος "strength") is an old and stable part of the continental lithosphere, which consists of Earth's two topmost layers, the crust and the uppermost mantle. Having often survived cycles of merging and ...

Laurentia Laurentia or the North American Craton is a large continental craton that forms the ancient geological core of North America. Many times in its past, Laurentia has been a separate continent, as it is now in the form of North America, although ...

") was straddling the equator.

Paleobiota

Vertebrates

References

{{reflist
Edward B. Daeschler, Neil H. Shubin and Farish A. Jenkins Jr, 2006. "A Devonian tetrapod-like fish and the evolution of the tetrapod body plan" ''Nature'', April 2006, pp 757ff
(pdf file)

Fram Formation The Fram Formation is an Upper Devonian (Frasnian) sequence of rock strata on Ellesmere Island that came into prominence in 2006 with the discovery in its rocks of examples of the transitional fossil, ''Tiktaalik'', a sarcopterygian or lobe-finn ...

Fluvial deposits Devonian southern paleotropical deposits Upper Devonian Series

Paleobiota

Vertebrates

See also

References